


The Underground

by RunningErrands



Category: Teen Wolf (TV), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Derek is Frisk, F/F, F/M, I PROMISE ACTUAL UPDATES! I'VE WRITTEN ABOUT 2/3 OF THIS FIC, I swear, M/M, Please Love me, Please don't hate me for this, Undertale AU, Worth reading hopefully, sterek
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-04 19:05:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6671437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunningErrands/pseuds/RunningErrands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek didn't know when he climbed the mountain that he'd end up in an entire other world, but he did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Chapter 1: The Ruins

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY. First off, please, please, please don't send me any hate on this one okay? I played Undertale and kind of fell in love with this idea so I decided to write it. I know that the Undertale fandom receives a lot of shit, but this is honestly more leaning towards Sterek than Undertale. 
> 
> Also, I will be updating this weekly now! I promised myself that I can't play through the rest of the game unless I'm writing so I definitely have some incentive if I want to keep replaying the game!
> 
> Also, Undertale and Teen Wolf belong to Toby Fox and MTV, all rights belong to them and all that, blah blah don't sue me.

Prologue

In a small village at the foot of a mountain, there lived a young man.  He knew of the legends surrounding the mountain, that those who climbed the mountain never returned.  The man had no family and no friends, so he set off to prove the legends wrong.  The climb wasn’t hard, no craggy surfaces, just paths and trees gently spiraling up the mountain.  The man froze as he came to the mountain’s summit, eyes widening as he observed the large hole in the ground before him.  He moved to step forward and look closer, but his foot caught on a vine, sending him tumbling into the inky black abyss.

 

\----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o --

Chapter 1: The Ruins

 

The young man sat up suddenly, wincing as he felt a bump on the back of his head.  He looked around the darkness of the cavern.  He looked up and saw not a glimpse of the sky.  He got to his feet, eyes widening at the glowing yellow flowers under his feet.

He stepped forward, toward the only other source of light, another yellow flower, but taller than the rest.

“Howdy!  I’m Flowey!  Flowey the Flower!”  The flower spoke, a cheerful smile out of place on the flower’s center. “Hmm... You look like you’re new here!  I’ll help you out and teach you how everything works down here!”

The young man stepped back a little, wary of the flower.

“First thing’s first!  Look at your wrist!”  Flowey instructed.

The man turned his wrist over, looking at the underside.  There was a small red heart outlined in black inked into his skin.  He poked at it tentatively, shocked by its sudden appearance.

“That’s your SOUL.  The culmination of everything that makes you you!  It’s pretty small and weak now, but it can grow stronger, if you gain lots of LV!  That stands for LOVE of course!  Here!  I’ll share some with you right away so you can get a little stronger!  You just have to touch one of my friendliness pellets!”  The flower seemed to wiggle a little and a couple pinpricks of light expanded to about the size of a quarter.  “Here!  Get as many as you can!”  The pellets slowly floated towards the young man.

He reached out, to touch one and immediately pulled his hand back, feeling as if it had burned his fingertips.  He turned over his wrist again and observed the red color of the heart fade to black with a burning sensation.

“You idiot.”  The flower was still grinning, but now was much more sinister.  In this world, it’s kill or BE killed.”  The flower’s grin grew impossibly wide.  “Die.”  He commanded darkly, as pellets surrounded the young man.  

The young man closed his eyes as the flower laughed maniacally.  Suddenly, the man heard a noise of surprise from the flower.  When he opened his eyes, he discovered that the flower was gone, and in its place stood a middle-aged woman with a kind smile  and small, pointed white horns sticking out from within her curly black hair.

“Are you okay?”  She asked quietly, concern on her face.  “Don’t be afraid of me.  I’m Melissa.  I take care of the Ruins.  I pass through here sometimes to see if anybody has fallen down.  I was starting to think that there wouldn’t ever be another human to fall down here again…Come this way.  I’ll guide you through the catacombs.”  She offered kindly.

The man stepped forward hesitantly, following the woman through the columns to a better lit cavern where red leaves laid across the ground, leading to a fountain of sparkling water at the base of two sets of stairs.  

“What was your name now?”  Melissa asked as she climbed the stairs.

“Derek.”  The human answered quietly, his voice rough from lack of use.

“Well, Derek, feel free to take a drink at the fountain.  It should heal you fully.”  She smiled and pointed to the fountain.  “It’s also a good place to reflect on your surroundings.”  

Derek leaned over the fountain and took a drink.  He was surprised at how quickly the water helped, and he pulled back the sleeve of his sweater to watch the heart gradually fill with red once again.  When he was finished, he followed Melissa up the stairs, frowning in confusion when they entered a room with no discernable exit.  

“Oh!  This is a puzzle.”  Melissa explained with a smile.  “The ruins are full of them!  Actually the whole underground is full of them.”  She chuckled softly.  “If you read the plaques on the walls, it’s usually not too hard to figure them out!  I’ll show you this one, since you’re new here.”  She walked through four raised stones on the ground, leaving two of them untouched.  A door on the opposite side of the room slid open quietly.

The two traversed to the next room easily.

“Okay, so we also have switches that open doors sometimes as well.  In this room I marked which ones you should press, okay?  Why don’t you give it a try?”

Derek flipped the two switches easily, looking to Melissa for approval.

“Excellent!”  Melissa smiled.  “Now, on to the next room then!”

In the next room Melissa sighed a little.  “So...as a human in the underground, you may occasionally...be attacked by other monsters.  In that event, I’m sure you’d need to know how to solve the conflict without violence.  It’s really very easy.  You just need to talk with them for a little while and then I’ll come and resolve the problem for you!”  Melissa explained.  “It’s easy, why don’t you practice on that dummy over there.”  She nodded to a dummy on one of the sides of the room.

Derek approached it cautiously.  He reached out to touch it and was shocked when orange words appeared in front of him.  “ FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, MERCY.”  He read aloud quietly, baffled.  He reached out to touch the ACT and jumped a little when it broke into pieces.  He looked to the side and saw Melissa nodding, giving him a signal to continue.  He opened his mouth hesitantly.  “Um...Hi.  So you’re a dummy…”  Derek immediately felt dumb as the dummy didn’t reply.  Melissa grinned widely, slashing a hand between Derek and the Dummy.  Two with number 0s popped up in front of them, before dissolving into the air.  

“That was perfect!” Melissa beamed, patting Derek on the back.  “Exactly like that!  The 0s mean that you haven’t gained any XP or Gold from this exchange.  Sometimes if you talk with monsters, they’ll give you some gold afterwards.”  Melissa explained.  “But anyways, on to the next room!”  She grinned excitedly.  “Now, there’s another puzzle in this room, but I want you to solve it!  If it’s not too hard of course.”

Derek started across the room, but was stopped by a small, frog shaped monster in front of him.  In white letters, a name popped up.  “Froggit.”  Derek read aloud.  He looked down at the four orange words that had reappeared in front of him, reaching for the ACT, but being halted by Melissa who stared at Froggit, obviously annoyed.  Froggit sheepishly hopped away and the two 0s popped up again as the words dissolved again.

“Sorry about that.”  Melissa rolled her eyes.  “It happens, but anyways, here’s the puzzle.”

Derek looked apprehensively at the field of metal spikes in front of him.

“Uh, here, come with me for a second.”  Melissa grabbed his hand gently and pulled him through the spikes easily, making sure that none of them actually touched Derek.  “That puzzle seemed a little too dangerous for right away…”

Derek shrugged, not really upset by it.  He did look rather young when he shaved, maybe around 15 or 16 instead of 18.

“Well, in this new room, I have something to ask of you that might be rather...hard.”  She frowned.  “I’d like you to walk to the end of this room alone.  “Forgive me.”  She looked down as she ran away.

Derek hesitated, but stepped forward, walking to the end of the room without an issue.  He stood at the end, looking around in confusion.  There was another door, but did Melissa want him to continue or wait?

“Hello!  Sorry!  I promise that I didn’t leave you!  I swear.  I was just waiting behind this pillar!”  She explained.  “Thank you for trusting me!  I did this to test your independance.  I have to go finish some business, so I have to leave you alone for a little while.  Please wait right here.  It’s dangerous to explore by yourself.  Here’s a cell phone.  If you need anything, just call me.”  She smiled.  “Be good, alright?”  Melissa pecked Derek’s cheek with a kiss and exited the room easily.  

Derek waited for a good five minutes before his curiosity and boredom got the most of him.  “Just the next room.” He promised himself as he stepped through the door.  Almost immediately he recieved a call from Melissa.

“Hello!  This is Melissa.  You haven’t left that room, right? There are some puzzles in the next room that I didn’t get time to teach you about yet.  They could be dangerous.  Stay safe, okay?”  

Derek said nothing, feeling a little guilty about having left the room.

“Well, I trust you.  I’ll see you soon.  Stay safe.”  Melissa said before ending the call.

Derek stepped forward, but halted when he noticed another Froggit sitting before him.  He stepped forward hesitantly, expecting it to attack him.  He did not expect it to open its mouth and say:

“Excuse me human.  I have some advice for you about battling monsters.  If you ACT a certain way or FIGHT until you almost defeat a monster, they may not want to fight you anymore.  If a monster doesn’t want to fight you, then please, use mercy.”  The Froggit then hopped away, leaving Derek as confused as ever.

Derek headed north, discovering a small dead-end room with a bowl sitting in the center that said “Take One Please.”  He peered inside to discover candy.  He picked up on and stuffed it in his pocket, before leaving the room to drink at the water fountain in the previous room.  He continued on his way towards the next room but was stopped by yet another Froggit, this time initiating a battle.  The four orange options popped up again and Derek pressed ACT.  This time, two options floated up, spelled out in white.  COMPLIMENT or THREAT.  Derek certainly didn’t really want to hurt the frog so he tentatively touched COMPLIMENT, jumping as it exploded into bits.  

“Um.  Your skin looks very...mucous-y today.”  He smiled a little, still uncertain as to what he was doing.

The Froggit flushed a little, looking down.  A little white frog appeared next to Derek, jumping toward him.  Derek reached to catch the frog, but recoiled as it burned him.  He frowned, looking up toward the Froggit.  He shook off the pain in his hand and pressed the ACT again.  This time the words were yellow instead of white, so he hesitated, reaching for the Mercy button instead, figuring maybe he could run away instead of getting hurt again.  This time a yellow word, SPARE and a white word, FLEE popped up.  Derek hesitated, but pressed the SPARE gently. The Froggit smiled somehow and the orange words disappeared.  A 0 and a 2 popped up in front of Derek before dissolving.  A 2...Derek was curious as to what that meant, so he opened the cell phone Melissa had given him to call her and ask, but hesitated when he saw two little gold coins on the ground by his feet.  

“I guess that answers that question then…”  Derek flipped the phone shut and jogged back to the fountain at the beginning of the room to get another drink and to heal himself before continuing on.  Shortly after he began walking again, he received another call from Melissa, asking about whether he would like butterscotch or cinnamon better.  He answered butterscotch, only to receive another call not a minute later to ask if it would eat cinnamon as well, or if he was allergic to it or what.  Derek just kind of shrugged, knowing that Melissa couldn’t see it through the phone.  

He continued on through the next couple rooms only to discover the way blocked by a young woman who was completely white and a little bit see through laying on the ground, simply staring at the ceiling.  Derek approached her cautiously.  

“ZZZZZZZZZ.”  The young woman said, keeping her eyes closed as tightly as possible.

Derek reached out to touch her shoulder and was shocked when it initiated a battle.  He glanced down to see that the ghost’s name was...Meredith?  He hesitantly hit ACT and chose cheer.

“You looked pretty down, so I just wanted to let you know that you seem to be a friendly ghost.”  Derek tried, hoping it would work.

Meredith straightened up a little, face brightening.  She shed a couple tears, the tears turning white and coming straight towards Derek.  

Derek had learned his lesson by now and dodged the tears quickly.  He hit ACT again and chose to cheer her once again.

“What’s a karate expert’s favorite drink?”  Derek asked.  Meredith looked at him in confusion.  “Kara-tea.”  Derek answered, flushing a little at the bad joke.

Meredith smiled a little and Derek prepared to dodge an attack, but just kind of stood as the white tears became a message spelling ‘Sorry, I’m really just not up to it right now.”

Derek hit ACT one more time, choosing to cheer her up again, as it seemed to be working. 

“Hey...can I show you something?”  Meredith started crying again, but this time her tears flew upward, becoming a hat.  She smiled, still crying.  “Do you like it?”

“Yeah!  That’s neat!”  Derek replied with a grin.

“Oh gee…”  The battle faded back the Ruins.  “I usually come here because there’s nobody around, but today I met somebody nice…”  She got this far off dreamy look in her eye.  “Sorry, I’m rambling again.  I’ll get out of your way.”  She slowly faded from view, leaving the path clear.

“Okay then.”  Derek muttered to himself, stepping forward into the next room, only to see a sign with a couple of spider webs behind it.  “Spider Bake Sale.”  He read.  He looked at the webs and saw that they had donuts and cider on them.  He stepped toward the donut and put a couple gold in the web before taking one.  He wasn’t really one for junk food, but he figured he had the gold, and if it was going to a good cause, why not do it?  It wasn’t like he had anything else to spend his gold on.  He backtracked to the room before and headed up, having some conversations with some Froggits as he walked through the room.

Derek continued through the next rooms, solving puzzles and fighting enemies here and there.  He eventually came to a small house.  

Melissa hurried out of the house, muttering to herself.

“OH MY GOD!”  She reached out and looked at Derek’s wrist on which the heart was only about 30% red after having battled and spared so many monsters.  “Let me heal you really quick!  I’m so sorry...If I hadn’t taken so long, you wouldn’t have been hurt, and oh my gosh, I am so sorry.”  She shook her head.  “I was trying to surprise you, but I guess you see part of your surprise already.  Come on in.”  She gestured to the house, holding Derek’s hand to lead him inside.

 


	2. Chapter 2: The Little House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek gets to check out Melissa's house. Plus free pie! Whoo!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay okay okay, I know I said I was going to update once a week, but I really love this fic and I want to play more undertale, so I now decided that every time I write a chapter, I'll upload a chapter. (And then if one week I don't write a chapter, I'll upload one anyways because I'm ahead on writing. :) ) So here's Chapter 2! Enjoy!

 

Derek stepped into the house and immediately took a deep breath.  

“Do you smell that?”  Melissa smiled widely.  “Surprise!  It’s a butterscotch-cinnamon pie!  I made it so that we could celebrate your arrival!  I want you to have a nice time living here…”

Derek froze.  Living here?  Underground?  He didn’t have much time to think about it because immediately Melissa jumped up with a smile.

“I have another surprise for you!  Follow me!”  She turned to walk through a hallway lined with doors.  “This is it!  A room for you! I really hope you like it!”  She put a hand on Derek’s back in a motherly way.  “Make yourself at home!”  She smiled softly, before walking off.

Derek stepped into the room and looked around.  It had obviously been a kids’ bedroom before, which made Derek a little worried about why Melissa had it in her house.  There was a twin sized bed, toys, kid’s clothes in all sorts of sizes, and oddly enough, a bin full of shoes.  Derek sat on the bed and looked up at the ceiling.  Staying here, in the Ruins with Melissa...It didn’t sound bad per-say, but something told Derek that this wasn’t right.  That he didn’t belong down here in the sunless rock.  He laid down, processing what he’d seen already.  He sighed tiredly, coming to the decision that he would ask Melissa how to get back home.  After a nap anyways.

Derek woke up to a great smell.  Somebody had covered him with a blanket -- two guesses who -- and had left a tupperware of butterscotch-cinnamon pie on the desk.  He tucked the tupperware into his backpack he had had when he’d been climbing the mountain.  He shrugged his backpack on and stepped out of the kids’ room, intending to ask Melissa about leaving, but paused when he saw two more doors in the hallway.  One was obviously Melissa’s room, with subterranean plants and books on the shelf.  The next room however, was locked.  Derek turned back to his original mission, but filed away the locked door as information to recall later if needed.  

He found Melissa reading a book in front of a cozy fire.  He looked down at where she was sitting and she looked up and smiled.

“Up already?”  She put a bookmark in her book and set it aside.  “I...I want to let you know how happy I am that you’re here.  You can only reread books so many times after all...Anyways, did you need something?”

“I was wondering how I could get back to my home.”  Derek asked simply.

“What?”  Melissa looked a little hurt.  “Derek, this is your home now.”  She picked up the book again.  “Do you want to hear about this book I’m reading?  It’s called 72 remedies from subterranean plants.  How about it?”

“Melissa.  How do I exit the ruins?”  Derek asked a little more firmly.

“Did you know that subterranean clovers can grow up to 15 feet in height?”  Melissa asked.  “Pretty interesting, huh?”

“Melissa, I need you to tell me how to exit the ruins.”  Derek sighed, growing a little aggravated.

“I...have something I have to do.  Stay here.”  Melissa stood and hurried away.

Derek immediately followed her, down a set of stairs to a long hallway without doors on the sides.

“You want to know how to return home, don’t you?”  Melissa asked quietly.  “Ahead of us are the end of the ruins.  It’s an exit to the rest of the underground.”  She looked down at where her hands were folded.  “I’m going to destroy it.  Then nobody will ever be able to leave again.  Now be good and go upstairs.”

Melissa walked away and Derek followed her again until she stopped.

“Every human that falls down here meets the same exact fate.  I’ve seen it over and over again Derek.  They come, they leave, they die.  Derek, if you leave the ruins, they...the Sheriff...he’ll kill you.  I’m just trying to protect you. Go to your room.”

Derek followed her again stubbornly.

“Do not try to follow me again Derek.  This is your final warning.”

Derek followed her once more.

“You want to leave so badly?  You’re just like the others.  There is only one solution to this.  Prove yourself.  Prove to me how strong you are.”  Melissa turned around and immediately the four orange words materialized as she instigated a battle.

Derek stood his ground and pressed ACT, but couldn’t think of anything to say.  Melissa summoned small flames that hit Derek, draining about a fifth of his health.  Derek looked at his options and bit his lip.  He didn’t want to FIGHT Melissa, and he didn’t know how to ACT.  He didn’t really have any ITEMs to use, so that left MERCY.  Derek closed his eyes and hit SPARE.  Melissa didn’t say anything, frowning as she sent out more flames, taking another two fifths of Derek’s health.  Derek hit spare again and was once again bombarded with fire.  Again.  Derek was down to about a tenth of his health, and took one last chance by hitting SPARE one last time.  Melissa said nothing, but her flames avoided him.

“What are you doing?”  Melissa asked as Derek hit SPARE again, her flames still avoiding him.  “Attack or run away!”  SPARE.  “What are you trying to prove this way?”  SPARE.  “Fight me or leave!”  SPARE.  “Stop it.” SPARE.  “Stop looking at me that way.”  SPARE.  “Go away.”  Melissa looked close to tears now.  SPARE.  Melissa returned to silence as she frowned.  SPARE.  With each attack, Melissa looked like she was losing resolve.  SPARE.  “Look.  I know you miss your home.”  SPARE.  “But please, go upstairs now.”  SPARE. “I promise you’ll be able to live a really great life here.”  SPARE.  “I know we do not have much, but…”  SPARE.  “We can have a good life here.”  SPARE.  “Why are you making this so difficult?”  SPARE.  “Please.  Go upstairs.”  SPARE.  SPARE.  SPARE.  “Ha ha.  Pathetic, isn’t it?”  Melissa looked down, tears falling now.  “I can’t even save a single human.”  SPARE.  SPARE.  “No, I understand.  You would just be unhappy trapped down here.  The Ruins are very small once you get used to them.  It would not be right for you to live in a place like this.”  The orange words dissolved as the battle ended.

“If you truly want to leave the Ruins...I will not stop you.”  Melissa smiled a sad smile.  “However, when you leave...please do not come back.  I hope you understand.”  Melissa gave Derek a firm hug.  “Goodbye Derek.”  Melissa calmly walked back through the hallway.

“Goodbye Melissa.”  Derek said quietly, knowing she couldn’t hear him.  He looked at the exit with apprehension, but stepped up to it, pulled the door open, and left.

 

\----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o ----- o --

 

Derek stepped into another long hallway and made his way through it, watching as the walls of the hallway started to become icy.  He briefly wondered if when he came out on the other side it would be cold, but put the thought aside, as he wasn’t cold at the moment.

Derek came out on the other side of the hallway to see darkness and one, bright yellow flower.

“Clever.  Very Clever.”  The flower smiled innocently.  “You think you’re really smart, don’t you?  In this world, it’s kill or be killed.”  He rolled his eyes.  “So you were able to play by your own rules.  You spared the life of a single monster.  Ha ha ha.”  The flower laughed mockingly.  “I bet you feel really great.  You didn’t kill anybody this time.  But what will you do if you meet a relentless killer?  You’ll die and you’ll die and you’ll die.  Until you tire of trying that is.  What will you do then?  Will you kill out of frustration?  Or will you give up entirely on this world?  Then let me inherit the power to control it.  I am the prince of this world’s future.  Now don’t worry, my plan isn’t regicide.  It’s so much more interesting than that.  The flower laughed maniacally and disappeared into the icy ground.

Derek was left unsettled by Flowey’s words.  “You’ll die and you’ll die and you’ll die…”  He muttered to himself.  Last time he checked, he could only die once...right?  “Inherit the power to control this world?”  Derek shook his head in confusion.  There wasn’t anything about this world that he could control.  It made no sense.  “Okay, it’s a fucking monster flower Derek.  It’s fine.  He’s probably just messing with you.”  Derek took a deep breath and stepped forward to the archway ahead of him feeling something strange overcome him.  The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by snow and a large forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So hopefully that went well! :D I'm hoping to get Chapter 3 up tomorrow where we get to go out into the wonderful world of the Underground! We'll see though. Finals are next week, so I don't really have all the time in the world unfortunately. :(


	3. Chapter 3: Snowdin Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek starts to head toward Snowdin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okie dokie! I'm taking a quick break from the writing I was doing today to post this! (Watch out! I think I'm gonna double update today!)

 

Derek made his way along the eerily silent forest path, all senses on high alert.  He heard something crack behind him and froze, looking back to see nothing.  He continued walking a little faster.  He heard another noise behind him.  The shuffling of clothing.  He walked even faster.  After what seemed like forever, he came to a crudely made gate and froze when he heard the sound of footsteps in the snow behind him.

“Human.”  Came a voice from behind him.  “Don’t you know how to greet a new friend?”  The voice sounded a little smug.  “Turn around and shake my hand.”

Derek turned around slowly to see a hooded person, a little shorter than him, but not by much.  He slid his hand forward for a handshake, seeing as the other person already had their hand out for a handshake, wrapped in a mitten.

*Pffffffffffffffffffft*

“Hahaha!”  The person shook off their hood as he laughed raucously.  “You actually fell for the whoopie cushion in the hand trick?  It’s always funny!  Anyways, you’re human, right?”

“Uh, yeah.”  Derek nodded.  He looked over the guy.  He was pretty thin with pretty amber eyes and a blue hoodie.  He had nice lips and moles all over his skin.  “I mean, are you human too?”  Derek asked curiously.

“Haha, God no.”  The guy laughed, sliding a hand tinged with blue energy across his face to reveal a skull devoid of skin, fat, muscle, and organs.  Just bone.  “I’m a skeleton.  Stiles the skeleton.  I’m actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now, but y’know.  I don’t really care about capturing anybody.  Now my best buddy Scott...he’s a human hunting fanatic!  Actually, I think that’s him over there.  I have an idea.  Go through this gate here.  Yeah, Scott may have made the bars a little too wide.  Even with your...impressive physique, you should be able to get through just fine.”  Stiles put a hand on Derek’s back and pushed him back through the gate, reapplying his humanoid face.  “Now hurry, go hide behind that tree there.  It’s just about the only thing big enough for you to hide behind around here.”

Derek made his way to the tree and hid.

“Sup bro?”  Stiles grinned as a guy that Derek figured had to be Scott approached.  They did some sort of secret handshake.  When Stiles took off his gloves, Derek gasped at the bony hands under them.

“Stiles, you know what’s up.  It’s been eight days and you still haven’t recalibrated any of your puzzles!  You just kind of hang around here.  What do you even do?”

“Staring at this tree.  It’s pretty cool.  Want to take a look?”  Stiles pointed to the tree Derek was hiding behind.

Derek took a deep breath, immediately regretting trusting Stiles.  If this other skeleton guy really liked hunting humans and found him, Derek was screwed.

“No!  Stiles, we don’t have time for that!  What if a human comes through here?  I want to be completely ready!  I really want to capture a human Stiles, because if that happens, I’ll finally be able to join the royal guard!  I’ll finally be cool, and Allison will have to notice me!”  Scott insisted.

“Hmm.  Maybe this tree could help you…”  Stiles suggested.

“You are so not helping...lazybones.”  Scott smiled a little. “But seriously, you just kind of sit around and boondoggle.  I feel like you get lazier and lazier every day.”

“Hey, take it easy.  I got a ton of work done today.  A skele-ton.”  Stiles winked, turning to his right a little, as if there was someone out there in the woods he was addressing as well.

“Stiles!”

“Come on.  You’re smiling.”  Stiles grinned back.

“I am and I hate it!  Scott groaned.  “I don’t understand why I have to do so much to get into the royal guard.

“Wow.  Sounds like you’re really working yourself...down to the bone…”  Stiles chuckled at his own joke.

“Ugh!  I can’t ever have serious conversations with you!  I’m just going to attend to my puzzles.  As for yours, why don’t you put a little more...backbone into it.”  Scott winked before laughing loudly and walking back the way he had come.

“Okay you can come out now.”  Stiles laughed.

Derek couldn’t help but noticed what a great sound his laugh was, loud and obnoxious, but not grating to the ears.  He walked out from behind the tree.

“Yeah, you should probably get going.  He might come back, and if Ahe does…”  Stiles donned a shit eating grin.  “You’ll have to listen to more of my hilarious jokes.”  Stiles winked, giving Derek a shooing motion.  

Derek started to continue forward but was stopped.

“Hey, wait.  Actually, can you do me a favor?  See, Scott’s been kind of down recently.  He’s never seen a human before, so seeing you might make his day.  Don’t worry, he’s not really very dangerous, even when he tries to be.”

“Um.  Sure.”  Derek nodded uncertainly.

“Thanks a million.  I’ll be up ahead.”  Stiles smiled, waving a little.

Derek nodded before continuing to walk ahead.

“So, like I was saying about Allison…” Scott trailed off as he noticed Derek’s approach.  “Stiles!  Oh my God!  Is that a human?”  

“Uhhh...Actually, I think that’s a rock.”  Stiles pointed to a rock right behind where Derek was standing.

“Oh?”  Scott asked.

“Oh hey, what’s that in front of the rock?”  Stiles asked, winking at Derek a little.

Derek flushed a little, wanting to take a couple steps backward.  He wasn’t really used to being looked at so closely.

“Oh my God!  Is that a human?”  Scott asked, this time a whisper as he leaned over to confirm with Stiles.

“Yes.”  Stiles confirmed.

“Oh my God!  Stiles!  I finally did it!  Allison will!  I’m gonna! I…oh, right.  Human!  You shall not pass through this area!  I, Scott, will stop you!  Then I will capture you.  You will be delivered to the capital.  Then...well, I’m not 100% sure what happens after that.  In any case, only continue if you’re prepared to fight!”  Scott grinned, leaning over to Stiles.  “I’m going to go check the puzzles ahead.” He whispered loudly before running ahead.

“Well, that went well.”  Stiles grinned.  “Don’t sweat it dude.  I’ll keep an eye socket out for ya’.” Stiles winked, revealing an empty eye socket before blinking again to return it to his whisky brown eyes.  He waved a little and walked away, presumably to catch up with Scott.

“Don’t call me dude.”  Derek called after Stiles, but sighed, smiling a little at the two’s antics.  He continued forward along the snowy path.  He encountered a couple monsters who initiated fights with him, but none that he had issues sparing.  He came across Stiles again sooner than he thought he would.

“Hey, so I wanted to warn you that Scott has a very special attack, okay?  If you see an attack that’s blue instead of white, just don’t move.  It’ll only hurt you if it’s moving.  An easy way to remember it is that if you imagine a stop sign, you immediately think stop, right?  Stop signs are red, so instead, imagine a blue stop sign.  Simple, right?  When you have to battle someone, think about blue stop signs.”

Derek squinted at Stiles incredulously.

“Remember.  Blue stop signs.”  Stiles nodded seriously.

Derek shook his head and laughed a little before moving on.  Not five minutes later, he once again ran across Scott and Stiles.

“You’re so lazy!”  Scott groaned.  “You were napping all morning!”  
“That’s called sleeping Scott.”  Stiles protested.

“I don’t know that it counts if you start at 4am.”  Scott rolled his eyes.  “No excuses!”  Scott finally noticed Derek and perked up considerably.  “Oh!  The Human’s here!  In order to stop you, my bro and I have created some puzzles!  I think you’ll find this one quite shocking!”  Scott laughed.  “It’s an invisible electricity maze.  When you touch the walls of this maze, this orb will administer a shock!  Sound like fun?  Because in reality you probably will not have that much fun.  Okay.  Go ahead now.”  

Derek frowned, but walked up to the side of the maze and reached out to touch a wall.

Immediately Scott jumped in pain.

“Stiles!  What did you do?”  Scott groaned.

“I’m pretty sure the human has to hold the orb.”  Stiles offered, hands in his pockets.

“Oh.  Okay.”  Scott nodded in agreement and made his way through the maze easily to give Derek the orb, before walking back through the maze again.  

Derek chuckled when he grabbed the orb, then looked down at the tracks Scott’s boots had made as he made his way through the maze.  He followed them carefully, coming out on the other side completely unscathed.

“What?  How’s that possible?”  Scott asked in surprise.  “You solved it so easily!  Too easily!  Don’t worry though!  The next puzzle will be much harder!  It’s designed by my bro Stiles.  I’m 100% sure you’ll be absolutely confounded!”  Scott insisted before running ahead once again.

“Hey, thanks.  It seems like Scott’s having fun.  By the way, did you see that weird outfit he’s wearing?”  Stiles asked curiously.

Derek nodded, having seen the strange red caped get-up.

“We made that together a couple of weeks ago for a costume party.  He hasn’t worn anything else since.  He calls it his ‘battle body’.” Stiles chuckled.  “Yeah, Scottie’s pretty damn cool…”  Stiles smiled widely.

Derek chuckled.  “I couldn’t agree more.”  He nodded, continuing forward, leaving a quietly smiling Stiles behind.  

He trekked through the snow, battling monsters occasionally, but usually just finding the odd snowman.  Or snowdodecahedron.  

“Human!”  A voice caught Derek’s attention.  “I hope you’re ready for…”  Scott stopped in front of Derek, looking around in confusion.  “Stiles!  Where’s your puzzle?”  

“It’s right there.  On the ground.”  Stiles pointed at a piece of paper cut from a newspaper.  “Trust me.  There’s no way he can get past this one.”

Derek stepped forward and picked up the paper to see that it was titled ‘Monster Kidz Word Search.’  He stuck it in his pocket and stepped forward more, until he was just a couple feet in front of Scott and Stiles.

“Stiles!  That didn’t do anything!”  Scott groaned.

“Whoops.”  Stiles shook his head.  “I knew I should have used today’s crossword instead.

“What?  Crossword?  I can’t believe you said that!  The word search is like four times as hard as the crossword!

“What?  The easy peasy word scramble?  That’s for baby bones!”  Stiles scoffed.

“Unbelieveable!  Human!  Solve this dispute!  Which is harder?”  Scott demanded.

Derek paused for a moment.  He really thought that word searches were easier, but decided that Scott seemed like he could use someone on his side.

“Word Search is harder.”  He finally decided to say.

“HA!  Yes!  Humans must be very intelligent if they also think that word searches are hard!”  Scott fist pumped before running ahead once again.

“Thanks for saying word search just to appease Scott.”  Stiles smiled a little.  “Yesterday he got stumped trying to ‘solve’ the horoscope.”  Stiles chuckled.

Derek headed forward again, wondering how many more times he was going to run into the two skeletons and their puzzles.  He did almost immediately pass a plate of spaghetti and a note from Scott stating that it was a trap because his spaghetti was so good that Derek would be caught there eating the spaghetti forever.  The spaghetti, however was frozen to the table, so it wasn’t much of an option anyway.  Derek decided that that didn’t count as a puzzle and continued forward.

He eventually encountered Scott, waiting by an evergreen tree, presumably for Derek to wander by.

“What?  How did you avoid my spaghetti trap?  And more importantly, did you leave any for me?”  Scott asked, crossing his arms in disappointment.

“Um, yeah.  There’s still some left.”  He assured Scott.

“Wait, really?  You saved it so that we could share it?”  Scott laughed.  “Don’t worry, I’ll make you all the pasta you could ever want!”  He grinned.  “Anyways, here’s the next puzzle.  I kind of forgot the solution though, so if you need help, just tell me and I’ll work it out.”  Scott smiled.

Derek completely the puzzle quickly, much to Scott’s delight.

“Wow, you must really love puzzles, like I do!  Well, I can guarantee you’ll love the next puzzle then!  Who knows!  It might even be too easy for you!”  Scott laughed, running ahead to prepare the next puzzle.

Stiles was waiting on the other side of the puzzle.

“Good job on solving it so quickly.  You didn’t even need my help!”  Stiles grinned.  “Which is always great, because I love doing absolutely nothing!”  

Derek shook his head, laughing as he kept walking to Scott’s next puzzle.  

“Hey!  So you’re going to love this puzzle!  Dr. Martin Made it!  These tiles on the ground randomly change colors once I throw the switch!  Red tiles are impassible, yellow tiles will electrocute you, green tiles make you fight a monster, orange tiles are orange scented, blue tiles are water tiles, so you can swim through, but if you smell like oranges, the piranhas will bite you, and if a blue tile is next to a yellow tile, the blue tile will also zap you, purple tiles are slippery so they send you ahead to the next tile, but the soap smells like lemons, which piranhas do not like, so you can go through the water after, then finally, pink tiles don’t do anything.  Get it?”   Scott asked.

“Just for the sake of not having to go through that explanation again, let’s say that yes, I totally understood that.”  Derek sighed, rubbing at his head.

“Good!  One more thing is that this puzzle will be completely random.  When I pull the switch, it will make a puzzle that has never been seen before.  Not even I will know the solution!  Okay!  Get ready!”

The tiles flashed rapidly until they eventually settled.  There was one completely pink line through the center of the block.  Scott looked at the ground, sighed, and just walked away.

Derek walked on the pink tiles to the other side where Stiles was waiting.

“Hey, so that spaghetti from earlier, that wasn’t too bad for Scott.  Ever since he started lessons, he’s been getting a lot better at cooking.  If he keeps it up, at this rate he’ll make something edible by the end of next year.”  Stiles winked.

Derek chuckled softly and kept walking.  As he walked, he thought. Scott kept talking about some royal guard, and Flowey had said that he wasn’t planning regicide, so it seems that the underground is some kind of monarchy, but then Melissa had said that Derek should be worried about the Sheriff, not the king.  Maybe if he met this king, he’d be able to help him get back to the surface.

Derek sighed as he battled a couple more monsters and did a lot of walking.  He eventually did find a bridge where Scott and Stiles were once more waiting.

“Human.  This is your final, and most dangerous challenge.”  Scott warned.  “The gauntlet of deadly terror.”  All sorts of dangerous obstacles descended into Derek’s path.  “When I say the word, it will fully activate.  Cannons will fire, spikes will swing, blades will slice!  Each part will wing violently up and down!  Only the smallest chance of victory will remain.  Are you ready?  I’m about to do it.”  

…...nothing happened……

“Well?  What’s the holdup?  Stiles asked.

“Holdup?  What holdup?  I’m about to activate it now!”

…...nothing happened……

“That doesn’t look very activated Scott.”  

“Well...it’s just...this challenge seems to easy to defeat the human with now.  Yeah, we can’t use this one.  I’m a skeleton with standards after all!  My puzzles are very fair.  But this is just too distracting!  Away it goes!”  Scott stood with his arms crossed, then punched Stiles’ arm lightly.  “What are you looking at?  This was another victory for us!”  Scott insisted before turning and leaving the area altogether.

“I honestly don’t know what Scott’s going to do next.  I’d just make sure that you understand blue attacks.”  Stiles warned with a sigh.  “Well, Snowdin’s just ahead.  Enjoy.”  He nodded.

“Okay.  Thanks.”  Derek nodded before stepping through the forested entrance to Snowdin Town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there's that! :P Please please please comment and tell me anything you feel like telling me! I ALWAYS appreciate comments! No better way to improve!


	4. Chapter 4: A New Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek makes a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha booyah! Guess who managed a double update today! :D Enjoy!

 

Snowdin town wasn’t large.  It was small, quiet, and comforting.  Derek found himself smiling as he talked with the shopkeeper, buying several bisicles and cinnamon-bunnies.  He chatted with the woman with long floppy ears and felt himself growing a little uncomfortable as she talked about ‘getting freedom.’ He bid her farewell and continued through the small town, exploring the library and some kind of restaurant called Grillby’s run by a man who was actually made out of fire.  

Eventually Derek came to the end of the town and saw Scott standing on the bridge to the rest of the underground.

“Human.  Let me tell you something a little complicated.”  Scott sighed.  “It’s been really great to find someone who also likes spaghetti as much as you do, and someone who solves puzzles as well as you do, plus, I’m really cool, and it’s nice to be able to say that I also think you’re pretty cool.”  Scott looked down. “I know that must be along the lines of what you’re feeling right now, I can hardly imagine it.  I am pretty great after all.  I pity you, lonely human.”

Derek furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at Scott’s words and opened his mouth to protest, but was interrupted.

“Don’t worry!  You don’t have to be lonely anymore!  I, Scott, will be your…”  Scott trailed off.  “No..No, this is all wrong.  I can’t be your friend.  You’re a human. I have to capture you.”  He frowned guiltily.  “Then I can fulfill my lifelong dream, becoming the newest member of the Royal Guard…”  Scott waved a hand and initiated the battle, his caramel brown skin and dark eyes fading to bone.

Derek huffed, a little annoyed by Scott’s monologue, but pushed MERCY anyhow, choosing SPARE.

“So you won’t fight?”  Scott asked, frowning.  “Fine!  Then let’s see how you handle my fabled blue attack!”  

Derek rolled his eyes, standing still as several blue bones flew at him, passing right through, but suddenly, Derek felt a pulse in his wrist.  He pulled back his sleeve to see that the heart on his skin was now blue instead of red, just as one small white bone hit him.  He winced, confused at what had happened.

“You’re blue now.  That’s my attack”  Scott smiled proudly.

Derek frowned, still confused at what exactly had happened.  He pressed SPARE again, but this time as he tried to dodge the white bones flying at him, he was much slower, causing himself to get hit again.  He pulled a bisicle from his backpack and ate it, sighing in relief as his heart filled with blue again.

“How fast can you move?”  Scott grinned as he sent more attacks each time Derek hit SPARE.  “I can practically taste my future in the Royal Guard.  It’s going to be the best!”  Scott sighed.  “And Allison will have to notice me then!”  

Derek gritted his teeth as he continued to hit SPARE, his patience fading with each attack Scott sent his way.

“When you meet the king…”  Scott frowned as Derek continued to dodge his attacks.  “Ugh, just give up already!  If you don’t I’ll use my special attack!”  Scott threatened.  “I swear, any minute now!”  

Derek rolled his eyes, promising that he’d hit spare five more times and if that didn’t end the fight, he’d finally try something else.

“Last chance!”  Scott warned.  ‘Fine!  Watch my final attack!”  Scott summoned a bone, only to find that a small dog was chewing on it already.  “What the heck?”  He picked up the dog.  “C’mon puppy, that’s my special attack you have there!  I need it.”  Scott cooed, eventually putting the dog down when it refused to let go of the bone.  “Oh well.  I’ll just have to use a really cool regular attack.”  Scott sighed, before sending bones at Derek in all kinds of formations.

Derek dodged them all, promising that if he had to spare one more fucking time…

“Well.”  Scott panted.  “I see it’s clear that you can’t beat me, so I will grant you mercy, just this once.  “Okay, I’m SPAREing you.”  

Derek groaned in relief and hit SPARE back, collapsing to his knees with exhaustion as the battle dissolved.

“Oh my God, I can’t even beat someone as weak as you...Allison’s going to be disappointed in me.  I’ll never get to join the Royal Guard, and nobody will want to be friends with me…”  Scott sighed, looking down sadly.

“Hey...I’ll...be your friend…”  Derek reluctantly offered.  

“Wait, really?  You want to be my friend?  Well...okay then!”  Scott beamed.  “Who knew all I needed to do to make friends was to give people awful puzzles and then fight them!”

Derek laughed tiredly, slowly getting back to his feet.

“I’ll grant you permission to pass through to Waterfall then!  Plus I’ll give you directions to get to the surface.”  Scott screwed up his face in thought for a moment.  “You continue forward until you get to the end of Waterfall, then, when you reach the Capital, you just have to cross the barrier.  That’s the magical seal that’s trapping us all underground.  Anything can enter through it, but nothing can exit, except someone with a powerfull soul.  Like you!  That’s why the King wants a human.  He wants to open up the barrier with soul power.  Then all the mosters can return to the surface.”

Derek smiled in relief.  It sounded like he wasn’t too far from the exit.

“Oh wait...I almost forgot to tell you.  To get to the barrier you have to pass through the King’s castle... The King of all Monsters...he’s...well...he’s a big ole’ pushover.  Everybody loves that guy!  I’m sure if you just say: ‘excuse me Mr.Sheriff...can I please go home?’ he’ll guide you right to the barrier himself!”  Scott grinned.  “Anyways, that’s enough talking.  I’ll be at home, being a really cool friend!  Feel free to come by and hang out.  Stiles is my roommate, but usually his mess is confined to his room!”  Scott waved before heading back to Snowdin.

Derek smiled a little, inhaling another cinnamon-bunny as he walked across the bridge into an even darker cavern.  He came to the end of the small river he had been following only to find…

“Stiles?”  Derek asked in confusion as he approached the little shelter Stiles was sitting in.

“What?  Haven’t you seen a guy with two jobs before?”  Stiles stuck his tongue out playfully.  “Fortunately, twice the jobs means twice the amount of legally required breaks.  I’m going to Grillby’s want to come?”  

Derek hesitated.  He really didn’t want to be stuck underground for too long...but then again, it wouldn’t hurt to get a little food.  Cinnamon-bunnies and bisicles only did so much after all.

“Sure.”  Was his simple reply.

“Well, if you insist, I guess I can pry myself away from my work.”  Stiles rolled his eyes.  He stepped out of the shelter and pointed in the opposite direction of Grillby’s.  “Come this way.  I know a shortcut.”

Derek followed and then suddenly he just was in Grillby’s.  He didn’t even remember getting to Snowdin…

“Pretty fast shortcut, huh?”  Stiles grinned before turning to everyone seated in the restaurant.  “Hey everybody.”  

Each person they passed on the way to the bar said something to Stiles, usually just a ‘hey!’ or a ‘hello!’ but the occasional thanks as well.

“Hey Stiles...weren’t you just here for breakfast a couple minutes ago?”  Grillby, the fire man, asked.

“Nah.  I haven’t had breakfast in at least an hour.  That was brunch.”  Stiles smiled as the rest of the bar laughed.  “Here.  Get comfy.”  Stiles patted the bar stool next to him.

*Pffffffffffffft*  

Derek rolled his eyes, pulling the whoopie cushion off the seat.

“Whoops.  Watch where you sit down.”  Stiles said innocently.  “Sometimes weirdos go and put whoopie cushions on the seats.”  He winked.  “Anyway, let’s order.  What do you want?”  
“I’m just going to get some fries.”  Derek shrugged.

“Sounds pretty good.  Grillby, we’ll have a double order of fries please.”  Stiles addressed the sentient fire.

Grillby nodded in response and turned to start making the fries.  

“So what do you think of Scott?”  Stiles asked curiously.

“Um...he’s pretty cool I guess.”  Derek shrugged, Scott being the last thing he wanted to

talk about with Stiles.

“Well of course he’s cool.  You’d be that cool if you wore that outfit every day too.”  Stiles laughed.  “He only takes that thing off if he absolutely needs to.  Oh well.  At least he doesn’t really need to wash it.  Skeletons don’t really have BO or anything.”  

Derek frowned at the reminder of the fact that Stiles wasn’t even close to human.  

“Oh, here comes the food.”  Stiles pointed to where Grillby was bringing in two orders of fries.  “Do you want some ketchup?”  He asked, holding up the bottle.

“Sure.”  Derek shrugged.

“Bone appetit.  Stiles smiled as he handed Derek the bottle.

Derek tipped the bottle upside down, only to immediately frown as the top fell off and covered all of his fries in a bottles worth of ketchup.

“Whoops.”  Stiles chuckled.  “Eh, forget about it.  You can have mine.”  Stiles pushed his plate towards Derek.

“Do you want to share?”  Derek asked, frowning a little guiltily.

“Nah, I’m cool.”  Stiles lifted up his shirt and hoodie, causing Derek to flush a little in anticipation, but then he chuckled a little as Stiles revealed a spine and empty ribcage.  “Grillby’s food goes right through me.  I eat here more for the atmosphere.”  He quipped.

Derek nodded and dipped a fry in ketchup, throwing it in his mouth with a smile.

“Anyway, cool or not, you have to admit that Scott tries really hard.  Like how he keeps trying to be a part of the Royal Guard.  One day he went to the house of the head of the Royal guard and begged her to let him be in it.  Of course she shut the door on him because it was midnight, but the next day she woke up and saw him still waiting there.  Seeing his dedication, she decided to train him.  It’s uh...still a work in progress.”  Stiles chuckled quietly.

Derek nodded.  “Sounds like he’s got the perseverance thing on lock.”  

Stiles nodded his agreement.  “Oh yeah...one thing I wanted to ask you.  Have you ever heard of a talking flower?”  
Derek immediately thought back to Flowey, his stomach twisting uncomfortably as he nodded.

“So you know all about it then, the Echo Flower.”  Stiles frowned

Derek hesitated, not sure that they were thinking about the same talking flower.

“They’re all over the marsh.  If you say something to them, they’ll repeat it over and over again.  Scott told me something interesting the other day.   He said that sometimes, when nobody else is around, a flower appears and whispers things to him.  Flattery, advice, encouragement...predictions…”  Stiles fiddled with a string on his mitten.  “Weird, huh?  I think somebody is using them to play a trick on Scott.  Keep an eye out, okay?”

“Yeah.  Sure.”  Derek nodded, hoping he didn’t sound insincere.

“Thanks…”  Stiles was quiet for a moment.  “Welp, that was a long break.  I can’t believe I let you pull me away from my work for that long!”  He stood and stretched a little bit.  “Oh, by the way, I’m flat broke.  Can you foot the bill?  It’s just 10,000 gold.”  

“Um, hell no.”  Derek frowned.

“Just kidding.”  Stiles laughed.  “Grillby, put it on my tab.”  Stiles waved, walking towards the door.  He paused and turned for a moment, looking over Derek.  “By the way…”  His eyes looked Derek over again, but he slumped a little.  “I was going to say something, but I forgot.”  He looked down and walked through the door again, leaving Derek behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okie dokie, please, please, please comment. :) I always appreciate constructive criticism! I'll love you forever if you so much as comment the letter "Q." Literally anything. Come on guys. I need constant validation. ;P
> 
> Just kidding! Comments are appreciated, but if you're not feeling it, that's cool too. :)


	5. Chapter 5: The Hangout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek gets to hangout with Scott for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about no post yesterday. :) I had a bunch of stuff to do, so nothing got written. Today's chapter took me forever to write just because I kept falling asleep halfway through! But it got done, so I got to post today. :) Enjoy!
> 
> P.S. Sorry that it's kind of short. It was a little weird to try and connect it to anything, so I just didn't.

The “Hangout”

Derek left Grillby’s and started on his way back towards Waterfall.  He was just passing a house when a voice called out to him.

“Human!”  Scott grinned, his face having returned from being bone to now having it’s more human qualities once again.  “You came back to see me?  You must really be serious about this friendship if you came back so soon!  I know!  We can hang out somewhere special!  It’s a place that I spend a lot of time!”  Scott grabbed Derek’s hand and started walking back into Snowdin before turning around and walking back to the house.  “It’s my house!”  Scott beamed, holding open the door for Derek to enter through.

Derek stepped in, smiling at the little house.  It was pretty obvious that Scott and Stiles lived here.  He could see it in everything from the decor to the furniture.  

“Oh!  That’s Stiles’ pet rock!  He always forgets to feed it, so I usually take care of it.”  Scott explained, pulling out a can of sprinkles and sprinkling them over the rock.  “And then over there’s our kitchen, where I make my delicious spaghetti.”  Scott opened a cabinet and started to say something, but frowned.  “Puppy!  Why are you hiding in there?”  Scott picked up the puppy.  “OH NO!”  He groaned.  “It ate my favorite plate of spaghetti I’d made...I was going to show you…”  Scott frowned, setting the dog down so that it could run from the room.  

*wah wah wah wahhhhhh*  Came the sound of a trombone from upstairs.

“That’s Stiles.”  Scott rolled his eyes.  “He’s such a drama queen.”  Scott cupped his bony hands around his mouth.  “Stiles!  Stop plaguing my life with incidental music!”  He hollered up the stairs.

“What’s this?”  Derek asked, pointing at what looked to be a dirty sock on the floor.  It was covered with sticky notes, obviously Scott and Stiles.  It looked like Scott was trying to tell Stiles to pick up the sock.

“Stiles is a pain.  That’s what it is.”  Scott grumbled.  “But anyways, we can head upstairs if you want.”  

Derek shrugged and headed up the stairs.  He found the door in front of him clearly marked as Scott’s with a door down the hall marked as Stiles’.

“It’s locked.  You wouldn’t be able to open it.”  Scott told him as if he had read Derek’s mind.  “Plus Stiles isn’t here anymore.  He left to get back to work.”

“But wasn’t he just here?”  Derek frowned in confusion.  

“Yeah.”  Scott confirmed before opening the door to his room.  “C’mon, let’s hang out.”  He grinned.  “I’ve never hung out with a human before!”

Derek shrugged.  “Uh.  Okay.”  He agreed.

“Awesome!”  Scott beamed, waving his hand and pulling out a book.  “I have the official friendship hangout guidebook. It says I have to ask you to hang out first.”  Scott cleared his throat.  “Do you want to hang out?”  He asked.

“Sure.”  Derek laughed a little, a small smile on his face.

“Excellent!  Next it says that I should put on clothes to impress.”  Scott looked up from his book and gasped.  “You’re already wearing clothes...and you were wearing clothes earlier too...did you want to hang out with me this entire time?”  Scott asked in shock.

“Um…”  Derek hesitated, before shrugging.  What the hell.  “Yep.”  He agreed.

“NO.”  Scott groaned.  “You planned it all!  You’re way better at hanging out than I am.”  A white meter appeared above Scott’s head, as if they were in a battle.  Part of it filled with blue.  “Now wait!  You haven’t beat me yet!  I’ve never been beaten at hanging out, and I never will!”  Scott insisted.  “I can keep up with you!  Watch, I can wear clothing too!”  He ducked into his closet, making Derek mentally laugh about skeletons in the closet.  When Scott reappeared he was a skeleton wearing a blue t-shirt and shorts.  The shirt simply said “cool dude.”

Derek smiled a little at Scott’s absolute insistence that he had to be the best at hanging out.  

“Well...what do you think of my style?”  He asked, gesturing to his clothes.   

“It’s really cool Scott.”  Derek smiled, remembering what Stiles had said about Scott only taking out his other outfit if absolutely necessary.

“Ugh...a genuine compliment?”  Scott winced, the bar above his head filling with more blue.  “But wait...you don’t get the coolest part about this outfit yet, so that compliment was invalid!”  A little bit of blue faded from the bar.  

“Is it in your shirt?”  Derek asked, remembering Stiles’ hollow rib cage.

“A pfft...What?  How did you know?”  Scott grinned widely as he pulled a plate of spaghetti out of his rib cage.  “Do you want to try some?”  
Derek hesitated, looking at the pasta and then at Stiles’ bones and groaned a little, not really wanting to eat something that had been inside a skeleton.  He reluctantly took the plate and took a small bite of spaghetti.  Derek’s face screwed up a little.  

“The taste is...indescribable.”  He managed.

“I can see how much you loved it in your face!  You loved it maybe almost as much as you love me!”  Scott clapped his bony hands and the white meter above his head became fully blue.  “Human...it’s clear now.”  Scott smiled a little sadly.  “You’re completely obsessed with me…Everything you do, everything you say...it’s for my sake.  Human, I want you to be happy too.  I need to tell you this now.”  Scott looked down.  “I...I...I’m flattered that you care so much, but maybe cool it a little bit?  You’re a pretty nice person.  I’m glad we’re friends, but you’re a little too intense...I know a solution!  You should hang out with Allison!  Maybe if you had more friends, you wouldn’t have your friend energy concentrated in one place!  You’d have a much healthier lifestyle!”  Scott went to leave the room.  “Oh wait...If you ever need to reach me, here’s my phone number.  You can call me any time!  Platonically of course.  Well, I gotta go, so I’ll see you around.”  Scott gave a wave, leaving his room once again.

Derek chuckled to himself as he left Scott and Stiles’ house, heading off toward Waterfall once again, resolving that there’d be no more stops until he got to the capital.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I recently came to the realization that it's spelled Snowdin not Snowden, but Snowden doesn't get autocorrected, so idk whether I'll change it or not. If you're particularly moved as to whether I should change it or not, feel free to tell me. :)


	6. Chapter 6: Waterfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek finally ventures into Waterfall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know it's been a while, but I'm going to get back into posting now. There was a minor setback in that I was playing the game with my nephew and accidentally saved, so now I'll have to catch up with the writing by watching youtubers play it instead, but I'll get back to it! :) 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter, and look forward to updates more often once again!

Derek reached Waterfall quicker than he thought he would.  He waved at the sleeping Stiles as he passed, chuckling as his eyes swept over Stiles’ mussed hair and ajar lips.  He journeyed further into the dark cavern, growing uncomfortable as the darkness became quieter and quieter.  Derek froze at the sight of a glowing blue flower.  He immediately thought back to when Stiles had mentioned the talking flowers.  He bent next to the flower and heard a voice say quietly:

“I swore that I saw something behind that rushing water... “  
Derek spun to look at the waterfall not five feet from where he was standing.  He squinted into the water and frowned when he saw a camera.  He shrugged, resolving to keep an eye out for more along the path and continued on.  He stepped into some tall grass and froze when he heard Scott’s voice.  Derek crouched down in the grass, unsure of who Scott was talking to.

“Um...Allison.  H-here’s my daily report.”  Scott stammered.  “I-I know I called you about a human I found earlier, but-”

“Did you fight them?”  A woman said, her voice sharp.  

‘She must be Allison.’  Derek thought to himself with a frown.

“Um, uh, of course I did.”  Scott nodded eagerly.  “I fought them valiantly!”

“Did you capture the human then?  Where is it?”  Allison asked with a frown.

“W-well...no.”  Scott admitted.  “I tried very hard, but in the end…I failed.” 

“Fine.  I’ll take the human’s soul myself then.”  Allison replied with a shrug.  Derek could see that she was covered from head to toe in armor, making him wonder how intense fighting her would have to be!

“What?  No!”  Scott protested.  “Allison, you don’t have to destroy them!  Because...Um…”  Scott trailed off, taking a couple steps backwards.

“Scott, this is of utmost importance.  If you want to be on the Royal Guard, you have to be able to obey orders.”  Allison chided.

“R-right.  Uh, okay.  I’ll help you in any way I can.”  Scott eventually said meekly before turning back in the direction of Snowdin.  

Derek listened for a while and finally made a move forward, halting when he heard the clank of armor stepping towards him.  He froze once again, thanking God for his dark hair that allowed him to blend in with the cavern’s dark grass.  Allison stood still for a moment, watching the grass, but eventually turned away, walking further into the cavern.

Derek walked out of the grass, a little shaky from the encounter.

“Woah!  Did you see the way she looked at you?”  A kid, probably fifteen or sixteen years old ran out of the grass.  He had spines all down his head and back, marking him as a monster.  “That was awesome!  I’m so jealous!  I’m Liam by the way.”  The kid introduced himself with a toothy grin.  “What did you do to get her attention anyways?”  

“Uh...I don’t know?  Just luck I guess.”  Derek laughed weakly.

“C’mon, let’s go watch her beat up some bad guys!”  Liam encouraged, running ahead of Derek, presumably to chase after Allison.

Derek followed the path reluctantly, think all the while about what he would do if he met Allison.  He was stopped suddenly by a high pitched screech.

“You!  Right there!  Flexing contest, immediately!”  A seahorse looking monster levitated up to Derek, flexing his biceps insistently.  “You have muscles, but mine are better!  I’m going to prove it!”  

A battle popped up between them, showing the monster’s name to be Aaron.  Derek gritted his teeth in frustration.  He tapped ACT impatiently, flexing at the monster’s request.

“No no no!”  Aaron cried in frustration.  “ I can’t even see your muscles!  How do I even know that you’re flexing!”  Ghostly white versions of Aaron’s biceps floated towards Derek, forcing him to dodge.

Derek rolled his eyes and pulled his sweater over his head, revealing a plain white undershirt.  He hit ACT once more and flexed even harder, annoyance on his face.

“You’re hardly even trying!”  The monster wailed, flexing harder, causing veins to pop out of his muscles.  

This time, drops of sweat turned white and flew toward Derek.  He dodged them quickly, a look of disgust on his face.

“What kind of attack even is that?  That’s disgusting!”  He growled as he pulled his undershirt over his head and slammed his fist down on ACT.  He put his arms up again and turned, flexing his back muscles at the same time.

“NO!  I will not be bested!”  Aaron insisted, flexing so hard he flexed right out of the room of the caverns, causing the battle to end.

Derek rubbed the back of his head in confusion before shaking his head and pulling his shirts back over his head.  He continued forward, determined to push forward through the cavern.  His phone rang and Derek answered it as he walked.

“Hello?”

“Yes, this is Scott.”  Came Scott’s cheerful voice from the phone.

“How did you even get my phone number?”  Derek asked in confusion.

“Well I dialed every number sequentially until I found yours of course.”  Scott explained like it was supposed to be common knowledge.  “So...what are you wearing?”

Derek’s eyebrows would have gone up so far he wouldn’t have to worry about getting out of the underground, had they not been attached to his face.

“I’m asking for a friend.”  Scott explained, as if that made it better.  “She could have sworn she saw you wearing this sweater with thumbholes.”  

“Uh, no...I’m wearing a...bandana.”  Derek lied, feeling a little guilty, but suspicious of Scott’s friend anyways.

“Okay good.  Since you’re my friend, I 100% trust you.”  Scott practically grinned through the phone.  “Have a nice day Human!”  The line went dead.

Derek tucked the phone back into his pocket as he continued walking.  It was kind of weird that he still hadn’t told anybody but Melissa his name, but they all seemed content to call him Human, so Derek didn’t really feel the need to make them change.  He was starting to get used to the nickname anyways.  He hummed to himself quietly as he made his way through the caverns.  He eventually made it to a room with sparkling crystals on the ceiling.  He read the signs along the wall and listened to the flowers around the room.  It seemed sad that the monsters had to stay underground so long without getting to see the sky.  Their king sounded nice though.  He evidently had a plan to help the monsters escape from the underground.  It was...nice.  Derek decided that he liked the idea of this king.  Scott was probably right.  He’ll just be a big pushover.  Derek convinced himself, smiling until he came to an open room made of wooden planks.  He squinted at the markings on the walls.

 

The War of Humans and Monsters

Why did the humans attack?  Indeed

It seemed that they had nothing to fear.

Humans are unbelievably strong.  It would 

Take the SOUL of nearly every monster

Just to equal the power of one human

SOUL.  But humans have one weakness,

Ironically, it’s the strength of their SOUL.

Its power allows it to persist outside the

Human body, even after death.  If a 

Monster defeats a human, they can take its 

SOUL.  A monster with a human soul. A 

Horrible beast with unfathomable power.

 

Derek winced a little at the illustration accompanying the last lines of the markings.  He felt extremely unsettled by it and chose to keep moving rather than dwelling in the darkness of the room.

He soon found himself on a long wooden pier.  He walked along it, still incredibly unsettled.  He paused a moment, hearing something above him on a craggy walkway built into the side of the cavern.  Allison stood there in her armor, her bow and arrow raise.  

Derek immediately took off at a run, dodging her arrows as best as possible.  He came to another large patch of grass and slid into it like a baseball player sliding to home base.  He held a hand over his mouth as he tried to breathe silently after having run for so long.

Allison walked into the grass, arrow notched in her bow.  She let loose the arrow and it flew into the ground directly next to Derek’s head.  Allison turned and walked away in a huff, obviously upset that she had lost sight of the human.  When Derek was absolutely sure that Allison had left, he stood, dusting the mud and grass off of his sweater.  He frowned in disappointment.  Now it was sweaty, muddy, soaking wet, and covered in grass.  Wonderful.  He exited the patch of grass and was followed by Liam once again.

“OH MY GOD.”  Liam grinned widely, holding up Allison’s arrow.  “I’m never letting this out of my sight!  It’s the best souvenir I’ve ever gotten and I didn’t even have to pay for it!”  He waved at Derek.  “Tough luck that you didn’t get it first!  Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll see her again.  You can ask her for one then!”  Liam winked and ran ahead once again.  

Derek made his way forward once again, stopping to drink at one of the fountains.  He was surprised when it not only filled the heart on his wrist with red, but it also restored his sweater to pristine condition when he touched the fabric to the water in the hopes of washing out the mud stains.  He also felt more energetic once again, ready to run to the Capital if need be!

Derek did stop again though when he saw Stiles standing by a telescope.

“I’m thinking about getting into the telescope business.  It’s normally 5000G to use this premium telescope, but since we’re friends, I’ll let you use it for free.  Howzabout it?”  Stiles asked with a cheeky smile.

Derek shrugged and put his eye on the viewer.  He looked at all the crystals stuck to the ceiling and smiled a little.  It really did remind him of the stars.  Plus there were less mosquitos when you went stargazing underground!

He pulled up and moved to wipe at his eye, feeling something watery on it.  His fingers came back purple and he scowled at Stiles.

“What?  Aren’t you satisfied?”  He asked innocently, a very skelton-like grin on his face.

“No.”  Derek growled grumpily.

“Well okay then Mr.Sourpants.  I guess I’ll give you a full refund!”  Stiles opened his mouth and froze for a moment before shaking his head.  “Sorry.  Sometimes I forget that I don’t have a tongue I can stick out.”  He frowned, reaching up for Derek’s eye.  Derek closed it, assuming Stiles was going to wipe off the ink.  There was a flash of blue and Derek opened his eye again in confusion.  “Don’t worry Derek, it should be all gone.”  Stiles winked.  “I do have to get back to my telescope business though, so continue, please.”  Stiles gestured for Derek to continue on the path towards the capital.  

Derek found himself in a room full of luminous water.  He walked along the path built atop it carefully, almost stumbling a couple times, but managing to catch himself.  He received another call from Scott.

“Hey!  So that friend I told you about who wanted to know what you were wearing?  Well, her opinion of you is very...murdery.  But hey, don’t worry Human!  I’d never betray you!  You said you weren’t wearing a sweater, so I told her that you were wearing a black sweater!”  Scott explained.  “It kind of sucked that I had to lie to her, but since you’re not wearing a sweater, she now can’t possibly attack you!  So now you’re perfectly safe!  It’s really hard to do all this...I just want to be everyone’s friend.”  Scott went silent for a moment.  “But anyways, I’ll talk to you later!”  The call ended.

Derek sighed, a little tired once more now that he hadn’t been able to eat or drink from a fountain in a while.  He backtracked to where Stiles was sitting with his telescope.  

“Hey, Stiles.  Can you...watch out for me while I sleep?”  Derek flushed a little.

“Uh...sure thing.”  Stiles nodded, obviously a little surprised.  

“Thanks...I just...have to sleep for a little while.”  Derek frowned as he sank down to the ground.  He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, drifting into sleep easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm officially moved back home and I won't be starting my job for a while so I should have plenty of time to chill before having to get back into the super stressful schedule I had before, which of course means I'll be getting back into updates again! (Unless I spend all that time playing Fallout 4, but I probably won't. ;)


	7. Chapter 7: Waterfall Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More adventures in Waterfall!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having major issues with making myself sit down and actually write. I've been working on the same chapter for four days. D: But a deal is a deal! Here's the second chapter of this week. (Hey, Sunday totally counts)

Derek woke up next to Stiles, eyes blurry.  He blinked a couple times to clear the sleep away and frowned up at the crystals on the ceiling.  

“I shouldn’t have stopped for so long...I don’t know why I got so tired all of a sudden…”  Derek admitted as he stood up.

“It’s the music.”  Stiles said cryptically.  

“Music?”  Derek closed his eyes, listening, but didn’t hear any music.

“Just trust me.  It’s the music.  You should be able to get to Hotland before you get too tired though.  Just head to the right, then down, then right again, then up, then right, then…”  Stiles trailed off.  “I forget the rest.” He shrugged.

“Scott made it sound so easy.”  Derek sighed, rubbing at his eyes.  

“Trust me.  It’s not that hard.  Plus Allison should be along to help you out pretty soon.”  Stiles shrugged.  “But listen, I gotta go.  I’ll see you later.”  Stiles waved before walking to the right.  

Derek frowned, but walked in the same direction.   When he entered the deeper part of the cavern and saw no sign of Stiles, he figured it must have been another of his shortcuts.  He continued walking, following Stiles’ directions until he came to a crossroads.  

“Up or forward.”  Derek hummed to himself in thought.  “Up it is!”  He took the path upwards and found himself in a room with a piano but nothing else.  “Okay what?”  Derek frowned.  On the wall it said ‘this room hides a great treasure.’  “Oh well, back to the drawing board.  He stepped out and returned to go forward.  

Derek walked the long corridor, pausing at the foot of a statue that was being rained on.  It looked...sad.  The statue was obviously of some kind of horned monster.  It reminded Derek of Melissa a little bit.  He patted that statue’s wet head and continued along the path to find a basket of umbrellas.  He looked at the green and yellow umbrella he had picked up, much too small for him, but just the right size for a child.  He looked back at the statue, and set the umbrella in its stony grip.  He stepped back in surprise when a faint melody began to drift from the statue, presumably the music Stiles had been talking about.  Derek closed his eyes, listening to the pings of what must have been a hidden music box.  He opened his eyes and strode back to the room with the piano out of curiosity.  It took him a little while, but he plunked out the melody on the old, out of tune piano, causing a hole to open in the wall next to the piano.

Derek stepped into a small, dimly lit room with a glowing red crystal sitting on a pedestal in the center.  He reached out to touch the crystal, deciding that he just wanted to hold it for a moment, then he’d leave it be.  He heard something to his right and jumped a little just to see a small, white dog.  It barked a high pitch bark and panted happily.  It jumped up onto the pedestal easily and licked the stone in Derek’s hand, absorbing it into its body before running from the room.  Derek was left dumbstruck.  He put his hand in his pocket to call Scott and ask him about the dog, but winced when he pulled out a soggy piece of wet fur.  He groaned, wondering what to do with it.  He didn’t want to leave it here...He stuffed the fur in the outside pocket of his backpack zipping it up securely and making a mental note to get rid of it later.  He sighed and just decided to continue walking.  He walked past the statue, grabbing another, adult sized umbrella for himself and continue along the corridor he’d been walking in before.  

It didn’t take long before Derek ran into Liam once again.

“Hey!  You’ve got an umbrella!”  Liam grinned, stepping under Derek’s umbrella as well.  “Awesome!  I don’t really have the arms to hold one.”    
Derek frowned and looked at the kid, realizing just now that it was true.  Liam didn’t have arms, just empty sleeves.  

“Oh...okay.”  Derek said dumbly before continuing along the path.

“Man...Allison is so cooool.”  Liam sighed.  “She beats up bad guys and never loses... If I were human I’d be practically peeing my pants in fear, knowing she was looking to beat me up!”  He laughed as they walked.  Derek remained silent.  “So, one time in my home economics class, we had this project where we had to raise a flower like it was a baby monster.  The King, we had to call him Mr. Stilinski, volunteered to donate his own flowers!  He ended up coming into our class to teach us about responsibility and stuff.  It got me thinking...how cool would it be if Allison came to school?  She could beat up all the teachers!”  Liam grinned, but then his face became thoughtful.  “Actually, maybe not.  She’s pretty cool.  She’d never hurt an innocent person!”

Derek nodded along, but stopped a moment when they walked into a dark, but wide open area of the underground.  Far away he could see a grey stone castle, complete with towers.  He continued walking, and eventually came across a basket where he left his umbrella.  There was a large ledge in front of him blocking the rest of the way.

“Hey, you can probably climb this right?  You go ahead and I’ll find a different way to get to see Allison!”  Liam smiled, waving and running off.

Derek pulled himself over the ledge with ease and began walking along the path once more.  He found another hall filled with illustrations and words on the walls.

The Humans, afraid of our power 

Declared war on us.  They attacked

Suddenly and without mercy.  In the

End, it could hardly be called a war.

United, the humans were too powerful

For the monsters.  Not a single SOUL

Was taken, but countless monsters

Were turned to dust.  

The walls showed a graphic battle between demonic looking humans and innocent monsters.  Derek was suddenly really glad that Liam hadn’t been tall enough to climb the ledge.  Derek continued walking on the wooden pier raised high above the waters that led from the room.

Suddenly he heard a yell from nearby and dozens of knives popped up from blue puddles of light that had suddenly appeared upon the ground.  Derek began running again, doubtless that it was Allison chasing after him once again.  He navigated the maze of wooden boardwalk that took up the room through into another room where he reached the end of the boardwalk, only abyss before him.  He turned back, intending to face Allison if he had to, but felt his stomach squirm as the armored lady began walking toward him, bow and arrow raised and knives lined up neatly on her belt.  

Allison pulled a particularly wicked looking knife from her belt and with one swipe of blue energy, the boardwalk’s end was severed, casting Derek down into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it's a bit shorter than normal, but there wasn't really another good way to divide up waterfall into manageable chunks. :) I'll get to work on the chapters I'm working on now to see if I can maybe get some bonus chapters up this week to make up for it! :D

**Author's Note:**

> Alrighty! Thanks so much for reading! As always, all constructive criticisms and comments are welcome! Also, feel free to come on by and visit me on tumblr at http://sterekrunningerrands.tumblr.com/


End file.
